I've been uploading for 15 months and I still have $100 to go. 

Since I started with micro about 14 months ago, I've been amazed at some of the outstanding quality that can be found on micro. As I learned more and more about the stock business in general over these past months, I began to wonder why would these top-notch shooters even bother with micro because of the very low royalties. Well it was because it was the only viable way into the industry.

When micro first began, there were two options to sell stock - micro and macro (trads like Corbis & Getty). These trads are extremely difficult (if not impossible) to get into without having an established portfolio. So amateurs flocked to the micros. Many of these "amateurs" are now pros but the trads are still difficult to get into. In my opinion, they're slitting their own throats by snubbing these new pros.

However, within the past year we've seen a new business model evolve - midstock. Featurepics, Photoshelter Collection, LO's Sideshow are a few that I know of and, of course, Alamy has been an option for a long time. I think we're going to see a big change over the next year or two. These new pros are going to finally get fed up with low royalties and will start migrating enmasse to the midstock model. And I think this is great for the stock industry.

I'll use baseball terms to compare the various stock models. Micro is a farm league where amateurs enter to learn the industry and hone their skills. Midstock agencies are the AAA teams for the pros. They are pros but they're not quite ready for the major leagues. The trads are the MLB teams and should be looking to recruit from the midstock agencies. They should be ACTIVELY recruiting and not waiting for photographers to come to them!

Now this may not bode well for some of the current macro contributors. Many if not most of them are top notch profressionals who contribute professional work. However, take a look at any of the traditional sites and you will find a lot of crap that wouldn't pass the quality standards of the newest micro site. These are the people who should be concerned with their futures. They need to "shape up or ship out." The free ride is over. The micros are developing an ever-growing new group of professional stock photographers who will eventually leave micro and move on to mid and finally macro stock. The quality on those sites (mid and macro) will increase as will prices once again.

Just my 2 cents.

Your thoughts?

I took Bryan Peterson's online class through PPSOP for stock photography which cost me $2K.  Although I gathered a lot of useful information, I do not think it was worth $2K and in the end was disappointed. At the time PPSOP was somewhat new and Bryan seemed to be quite distracted.  Between problems with the site, administering the class, and traveling for shoots, Bryan seemed to be gone more than he was around.  I had heard he's a very good instructor which is one reason I chose to fork over the $2K.  However, I did not get to see that.

Many things have changed since then with PPSOP for the better.  If Bryan has the time to devote to the class now, it might be worth it.  I think I'd much rather do a workshop though.  I don't learn as well online as I do with something "hands-on".

Chellyar your thoughts are shared. Dreamstime's  severs are located in what is advertised as the biggest provider in the US, with state of the art technology.

I am afraid that I cannot share how we are structured but all requirements and standards are met on our side, with backups put into place and proper disaster recovery. The problem doesn't reside on our side, nor on our own techs team. What we do is to have everyone involved in fixing this problem ASAP as well as ensuring this will not happen again.

Achilles, check out Rackspace.com.  Our company (my day job) has used them for more than five years without a single incident.  They have fantastic customer support.  Of course if it's Rackspace you're using forget my suggestion.